Mystic Falls
by KaterinaPetrova
Summary: Boy wants girl. Girl doesn't want boy. But let's not forget who makes the rules around here. A story of rejection, love, blackmail, betrayal, and consequence.
1. Chapter 1

It's sort of strange how these type of things can happen. The power that one person can hold over another.

"I bet you twenty bucks that I could get 'Cindy' over there behind The Grill in five minutes flat."

Damon Salvatore. Wispy dark hair, piercing blue eyes, perfect smile. Every girls' fantasy.

"Nah, man. You don't want her. She's way too needy, trust me."

Matt Donovan. All American boy. Blonde hair, light eyes, quarterback on the football team. Admired by the female race constantly.

This was Mystic Falls, Virginia, circa 2012. These were high school boys, and they were best friends. And this was The Grill, a regular hang out spot for the popular and promising.

Damon Salvatore had parents that owned two thirds of the oil rigs off the Gulf. He was used to getting what he wanted. His folks traveled a lot and because of family money, he had near complete reign over his school. His uncle was the principal, imagine that. If he wanted to ditch, he never got marked absent. If he wanted an A, he got one. Those are the perks of having a wing at the Mystic Falls Hospital named after you, and having relatives that basically funded the town itself.

Matt Donovan had a similar atmosphere. He controlled the half of the school that Damon didn't. Sports and clubs were his forte. He liked girls. A lot. Sometimes more than he should, if you know what I mean. It didn't matter. Anything that didn't reflect well on him was always covered up. His parents owned a branch of one of the most successful pharmaceutical companies in the south. They were gone just as often as Damon's if not more, and never stuck around more than four months out of the year.

Right now, they were doing what they did a lot. Drinking beer that they totally weren't old enough to have, chillin' in the back of the restaurant. It was dark there, quiet and a totally great space for checking out babes. They could scope out the whole place from where they were sitting. And from here, Damon had a great view of the door where a crowd of kids from school were coming in. He scanned the group, trying to pick out a face that he actually wanted to talk to tonight. Forgetting Cindy the waitress from before, he held his breath as a super hot girl stepped in behind Caroline Forbes, the school cheerleader and Matt's wannabe girlfriend.

The girl had wavy dark hair and brown eyes. She was tall and slender but not too tall. She shyly grabbed Caroline's hand as they walked over to a table. He put it together that the two were friends, but he had never seen this chick before. It was possible that she lived out of town, but he doubted it. He had "been" with Caroline a couple times before, and she was pretty chatty. He had never heard a peep about a friend out of state.

"Hey, Caroline just walked in! I'm gunna go talk to her. Catch you later?" Matt threw a couple twenties down to cover their alcohol and food and began to walk away. Damon watched as he approached the girls' table and not so subtly hit on "don't know her name." Probably to stick it to Caroline.

Matt had his car, so Damon downed the last of his drink and grabbed his jacket before strolling out the door. As he fumbled drunkly with the keys to his Audi, he wished he hadn't had that last shot of vodka. He put the keys in the ignition and turned on the radio, trying to decide whether or not he wanted to go to school the next day. Pulling out of the parking lot of The Grill, he ultimately decided on "yes." He knew that he had to show some major face time this month because it was the very first week of school. It was the start of a brand new year. And he had a lot to change. Obviously he couldn't do it all himself. He needed a wingman. And since Matt was too busy drooling over Caroline to plan new strategies lately, it looked like he was in the market for a new friend.

Would he be able to find one as loyal and alike him as Matt? Probably not. But a temporary fix couldn't hurt. After all, he had one that might be perfect in mind already. His name was Jeremy. Jeremy Gilbert. He was suave, smart and new this year. He was the same year as Damon, and thankfully, completely uncharted territory. Damon could mold the dude into the perfect accomplice come September.

He was about three blocks from his house now. He lived in one of the biggest ones in town. It was ancient, passed down throughout the years to the generations of his family. He loved the stupid place, as old as it was, and was entirely ready to sleep the second he got there.

As Damon drove along, he couldn't help but think about how his parents were doing. Where were they again? Finalizing a deal in Bermuda or inspecting a gasoline factory in Australia? He was losing track of all of the things that those two did without him.

Just as Damon was getting ready to turn onto his road, he saw a figure in the street that made him slam on his brakes. Damon fought to keep his eyes open as he tried to focus on his blurring surroundings. A steady beat pulsed from his radio as his car skidded out of control. His insides were scrambled as the tires jolted and spun him all around endlessly. Finally, after his head was thoroughly pounding the car hit something that anchored it. Damon coughed and pushed open the door with a shaky hand. Had he slammed into a tree? What would the damage look like? He thought he was dreaming, though, as he took in the site before him. This was no tree he had hit. There was blood, so much blood everywhere. Red was splattered against his car like paint, illuminated by the single streetlamp ahead. Chunks of what looked like flesh were strewn about at his feet, and he felt like vomiting as he realized for the first time what he had hit.


	2. Chapter 2

Damon's hands went into his pockets immediately as he fumbled to find his cell phone. His heart was pounding in his chest and he could feel bile rising in this throat. He dialed the numbers the best that he could, but his hands kept slipping and he had to start from the beginning. As he deleted and re-typed again and again, his eyes kept drifting back to the violent scene in front of him. Was he supposed to report this to the police or what? Deep brown fur matted with blood clung to his tires, and he kept gagging as he realized that there weren't any car washes open at this time of night. He would have to go home and put his car in the garage like this, the stink of death filling his home. Damon finally managed to put his phone on talk and brought the device to his ear. It was going to take some serious explaining to get help this late at night. Luckily, he was, well, him. He wouldn't have any trouble getting assistance from anyone he asked to come. They would be reluctant, of course, but they would always come. That's simply how it was with Damon Salvatore in this town. He was like the king of the world.

After a brief ringing on the other side, the line clicked and a male voice answered.

"Hello?"

Damon was about to respond when a black SUV sped past him on the other side of road, their headlights blinding and the radio pulsing loudly. Obviously whoever had driven by was too drunk to notice that they were way over the speed limit.

"Jeremy. I need you to get in your car and drive to the street three blocks past Wickery Bridge."

"Damon? Is that you? It's almost eleven!"

_'Obviously'_, he thought.

"Listen to me! I'm already here. I've found myself in need of your assistance. Nothing too serious, but it's important that it gets cleaned up. Get over here."

He hung up with finality and resisted the urge to bang his head against the window of the driver's seat. It wasn't like these things hadn't happened before. Usually, he called Matt, but right now that wasn't an option. Besides, this was a perfect opportunity to try out his new protege.

Damon weighed the pros and cons of getting back into his car or standing out in the middle of the street like an idiot, and finally decided on getting back inside. The last thing he wanted to do was stare at a bloody mess all night. If he stayed out there a second longer, he would vomit for sure. Damon knew that we would have to take his car into the shop the next day. That was the least of his worries. He had had tons of cars fixed up before, the repairs all went on his parents' tab. Drumming his fingers against the dashboard, Damon eagerly awaited Jeremy's arrival.

When five minutes had passed, he got out again, careful to avoid any bodily remains, and opened his trunk warily. He remembered having stored a black trash bag in here a couple months before. It was one of those big Hefty bags, the flexible kind. It had held a six pack of Budwieser and other various bottles of alcohol for a party he had been throwing during the summer. He hoped that it would still be there and he hadn't thrown it out.

While he rifled through the contents of his trunk, Jeremy chose this moment to drive up in a two year old Toyota and climb out hysterically, barely turning of the ignition before running up to survey the scene.

"God, Damon. What have you _done_?" Jeremy's hands wound into his hair and he pulled at it nervously, before he began pacing back and forth.

"I can't believe that this is what you called me about! I thought that you spilled some pot or something!" He continued his rant, visibly upset.

Damon shook his head, reaching out a hand to signal that Jeremy stop pacing around.

"It looks worse than it really is. We just need to move it down into the forest there and it will look like an animal did it." The blue eyed boy was acting calmer than he felt. He had scratched his car plenty of time, even rammed it into a couple other cars, but he'd never hit anything before. Not like this.

Jeremy stopped walking back and forth and turned to look at his friend incredulously, pointing a finger at him.

"Are you serious? You want me to push it into the forest with my bare hands. And, what, pray tell exactly is _it_? A family of raccoons? This thing, whatever it is is freaking gigantic!" He was waving his hands back and forth now, barely keeping it together in the midst of all the blood and other.. things.

Tiredly, Damon reached up a hand to rub his eyelid.

"I'm drunk, Jeremy. I can't stick around to chat or I'm going to have a nasty hangover tomorrow."

His friend nodded back at him understandingly and waited for Damon to continue.

He did.

"Look, all we have to do is get rid of this and drive away. You can stay at my house tonight. Call your parents and say you were helping me with my Biology homework. They eat that crap up."

Jeremy nodded again and the two got to work, getting their hands messy and clothing soaked with a mysterious dead body. It certainly looked like nothing they had ever seen before. It must have bee huge, because there were plenty of remains. Whatever it was, though, wasn't very strong, because it seemed to burst right open when Damon had hit it. Several times throughout the experience they had to lean over the road and throw up. It was to be expected, though.

Neither had worries any longer about what would happen. Usually, it was a law in Mystic Falls that all accidents such as these had to be reported to the local Sheriff, coincidently, Caroline Forbes's mother. Damon got along with her okay enough. She was just as gone for him as the rest of authority figures in this town. They all worshipped at his very alter. Damon had never once reported anything that he did in this town, though, and he planned for it to stay that way. Of course, if anything slipped through everyone would just look the other way, but he didn't take chances. Mostly because he didn't want to go through the work of questioning or filing or any of that crap. Once you started into that, you never stopped.

It was tedious work, the cleaning. Once they had finished, though, they wiped their hands on their already murky clothing and agreed to follow each other back to the Boarding House. They could both get cleaned up there without Jeremy's parents asking why he was covered in blood from head to toe. The road was looking better now, too. There was still a thick coating of blood and other goo, but most of the chunky stuff had been taken care of.

Damon had started to sober up slightly, and his apprehensiveness about getting behind the wheel again was dissolving. Both Jeremy and himself started on the way to his house, and didn't barf a single time on the way there. Of course, they were both coated in remains and smelled horribly. Being in closed areas such a cars didn't help one bit, either, but eventually they got there are jumped out hurriedly. Not ever pausing to check the clock, Damon directed Jeremy to their spare bedroom and ran into his own, desperate for a shower.

Hot, moist steam filled their respective bathrooms, and when Jeremy stepped out, clean, fresh and extremely tired, his phone was ringing erratically. Reaching a damp hand reluctantly, he pressed talk and brought the phone to his ear.

"Hello," he mumbled sleepily.

"Jeremy Gilbert? This is the Mystic Falls Hospital."

"Oh?" Why would he be getting a call this late from the town hospital?

"Yes. I'm afraid we have some bad news. You're sister Elena was involved in an accident tonight. I can't disclose any more details over the phone, but you'll need to contact your parents immediately."


	3. Chapter 3

"Damon, I have to go. My sister is in the hospital." Jeremy was blinking erratically, as if there was something in his eye. He was set in the perfect stance, ready to run for the door in a nanosecond. Damon caught on to his worry and tried to replace his annoyance with pity, but couldn't manage it. Something about Gilbert intrigued him, though, and after their night he couldn't let the kid drive. He would surely get himself killed out there on the road with his twitching hands and shifting balance. Damon, in his selfishness saw this moment as the perfect opportunity to integrate himself further into Jeremy's world, making himself seem trustworthy and dependable. After all, those two factors combine perfectly to create the foundation of friendship. Or alliance, to be clearer. And Damon _needed_ an alliance. So he did something that would seem absolutely beautiful to most outside eyes but was really a front for his own hidden agenda.

"Man, wow. I'll drive you. C'mon." Damon threw a t-shirt and jeans on quickly and tried his best to put on a concerned face. The two of them began their decent out from Damon's bedroom and into the cast hallway, passing ornately carved furniture and antique bronze statues that would put some palaces to shame. Jeremy was wringing his hands now, still upset by whatever mess his mother was in. Or did he say sister? Damon couldn't remember. Something else Damon couldn't remember? Where he put his keys.

As he fiddled around for them in his many pockets and scanned tabletops, Jeremy grew intensley impatient.

"Damon, I appreciate this, but I really gotta go. Who knows what happened..."

The other one cut him off.

"Yeah, yeah, I get it, but It'll just take a second and then we can go. Seriously just hold on."

He was across the living room now, and he gestured for Jeremy to follow him. Damon had dumped the greasy keys on the marble mantel on his way to clean up. Wincing momentarily as he touched the slimy coating, he shoved them in his pocket and the two of them filed out of the doorway and headed for the garage. Upon entering, the familiar stench wafting into their noses made Damon sigh internally at the fact that he would have to re-shower after this little trip. They hustled into his Audi uncomfortably, sitting down in all of the mysterious goo that had cleaned off just moments before. Pulling out of the garage and down the drive, they shared an awkward silence that Damon wouldn't tolerate. He never felt out of place around Matt and that was obviously the friendship model to emulate.

Matt and Damon has the perfect thing going, they both fulfilled specific tasks that came together to create a magnificent show of their individual talents. Translation, they were a tag team that played off of one another, and Damon couldn't afford to lose Matt's extra hands. So until Matt could give Damon his full time again, he would use Jeremy, and, as illustrated by this night in particular, literally.

Damon spoke up.

"So, what happened to her?"

He snapped out his daze and looked at Damon for a few seconds too long, betraying the fact that he probably hadn't been focused on what was happening in the car. This made Damon slightly miffed. What would happen if it turned out she was dead or something? Jeremy wouldn't recover in time to help Damon with his plans. He thought so highly of Jeremy, he didn't want his expectations to fall short of his actual potential. For example, this night was a test and he has passed perfectly. Actually, Damon wasn't sure that he would, but he was pleasantly surprised with the outcome.

Jeremy finally answered. "Uh, they didn't say. Just that she had an accident and that I needed to come right over." Damon watched as he wiped his hand over his face in apprehension. He was clearly hoping that "accident" meant she stubbed her toe.

"Well, where was she tonight, wasn't she at home with you?"

He shook his head firmly in answer.

"No. She was supposed to be with her friends tonight, I mean, there are so many things that could've gone wrong. She's so brave it makes her stupid. She could be bleeding out of any number of bullet wounds." Jeremy tugged at his hair roughly before resting his chin on his hand, with his elbow against the passenger window. He looked so peaceful, Damon concluded. Too peaceful to be making any jabs at his oversensitivity.

They finally pulled into the parking lot of the hospital and Jeremy practically leaped out of his seat. Before taking his belt of, too, so he was thrust back immediately like in one of those animated cartoons.

Damon, however, calmly exited the vehicle and locked it behind him. You never can tell when someone wants to steal your car. Those types are all around, honestly.

After walking through the automatic "Emergency Admittance" sliding doors, Jeremy and subsequently Damon were rushed through the registration process so that they could be briefed on her condition. With Damon stating that he was the brotherly cousin and Jeremy reluctantly confirming this, a nurse arrived and showed them to the waiting room. She was a little on the short side with dark hair and a serious expression. She had a tag pinned to the front of her uniform with the name "Ana" neatly printed on it.

They walked into the area and Damon sized it up quickly. It was a sad little room, with gray walls and gray chairs and dreary furniture. It definitely did nothing for the demeanor of the place. There were lots of chairs, though, and when they had plopped down and looked expectantly at the nurse, she bit her lip hesitantly. After a few moments she spoke carefully.

"Jeremy, where are your parents?."

Jeremy looked at her pointedly.

"Don't you know? I mean, there's is the first number on the emergency contact list."

"Yes, we know that, but they aren't picking up either the cell phones or the home phone. That's why we called you, because we thought you might be able to get a hold of them."

Jeremy shifted in his chair.

"Well, I left them at home a couple hours ago and they had all of their phones I think. I mean, I can go home and tell them right after I find out if Elena's okay. That's the easy part, but no one has told me what happened to her and I'm pretty worried."

The nurse put a reassuring hand on Jeremy's arm. She seemed very sympathetic to the situation, too sympathetic.

"Jeremy, listen to me, Elena is in a stable condition. She is beaten up pretty badly, but they are mostly superficial wounds. I don't think that that is the major concern here."

Jeremy shook his head disbelieving.

"Not the major concern? What is going on here? Why won't anyone tell me what happened to Elena?"

"Ana" took a deep breath.

"We aren't positive, but we think that a couple who just came in might be your parents."

Damon took this moment to step in for his friend. He fixed his eyes on the nurse and responded bluntly.

"Look Ana, you're going to give him a coronary. What the hell is going on? Just say it.

Shocked, "Ana" did.

"You're parents are dead, Jeremy. We need you to make a positive I.D, but we're sure that it's them. They died when when they picking up your sister from her drunken friends' house. Their car skidded off of Wickery Bridge and fell into the water. Elena lived, but they did not. I'm sorry."

And just like that she walked out of the room, leaving Jeremy in a pool of misery for Damon Salvatore to clean.


End file.
